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SAFE PROJECT
EDUCATING AND WELCOMING IN SAFE ENVIRONMENTS
“Safe – Educating and Welcoming in Safe Environments” – is a project co-financed by the European Union and is led by the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII together with Azione Cattolica, Centro Sportivo Italiano, CiRViS-SDE from the Department of Sociology of the University of Bologna. This project sees the partners engaged in a two-year path from November 2019 to November 2021.
The general objective of the Project is therefore to create a culture of prevention of abuse and training for the protection of children and vulnerable people, through the promotion of safe environments and respectful and responsible interpersonal relationships.
The project will combine research and analysis, training and awareness raising activities. By combining these methods, the project will generate a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of the issues examined, providing a solid scientific basis for educational and reception activities with children in social protection, sport and leisure.
Considering the complexity of the project, the Partners’ consortium has decided to entrust the evaluation of the effectiveness of its impact with respect to the actions undertaken to a multidisciplinary team of university professors and researchers from the Faculty of Economics and Law and the Faculty of Education Sciences of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
CALL
SAFE responds to the priority of promoting the integration of child protection policies in different contexts and sectors, such as sports clubs and organisations, leisure/recreation clubs for children (including faith led; scouts and girl guides, private schools) both as a means to protect and safeguard children and to provide staff with the necessary training and guidance, in accordance with the “Keeping Children Safe” standards.
MISSION
SAFE is a national project but with a high potential transnational impact. It was developed thanks to the great experience of the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII in dealing with vulnerable and abused children, in close collaboration with experts such as psychologists, pedagogues, social workers, lawyers, academics. National and regional ombudsmen for children (https:/www.garanteinfanzia.org/) have expressed their appreciation and willingness for concrete involvement in the planned activities with formal letters of commitment.
According to Article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Minors against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention), adequate awareness and knowledge of the issue must be ensured among people who have regular contact with children in the areas of education, health, social protection, justice and law enforcement and in areas related to sports, culture and recreation. SAFE will contribute to the implementation of this article in Italy through extensive training sessions in 27 provinces of 13 Italian regions reaching 1200 people including local leaders, professionals and volunteers of religious organizations who have regular contact with more than 46,300 children.
See the video presentation of the project:
OBJECTIVES
1.
Supporting the integration of child protection policies in Italian faith led organisations
2.
Ensure an effective Training Package to detect, report and prevent abuse, for people who have regular contact with children in the education and social protection sectors and in areas related to sport and leisure activities.
EXPECTED RESULTS
1.
Increased the capacity to prevent, detect and report child abuse by at least 400 local leaders and 800 members and volunteers of faith led organizations and 60 members of the law enforcement of 27 Italian territories.
2.
Increased awareness among all Italian faith led organisations involved in child care, sports and recreational activities on how to prevent, identify and report child abuse through an effective child protection policy.
THREE WORKING TRACKS
PROTECTION POLICY: FROM ORIENTATION TO ETHICS
The associations involved in the Project will formalise the adoption of a policy to protect children and vulnerable people. The adoption and application of a specific protection policy will ensure the transition from guidelines that inspire actions and activities to prevention and reporting practices and tools, which are more necessary than ever because of the delicacy and preciousness of the educational contexts in which the three organisations operate. In fact, these are informal educational contexts of great importance to ensure the healthy growth of children and young people. The objective of the Project is therefore to support both the elaboration of the protection policy in the three organisations and its integration in the ordinary training courses for the development of activities and the safety of the environment. The Child Protection Policy guarantees compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Ten Principles for Integrated Child Protection Systems, and aims to ensure the best interests of the child.
TRAINING AS PROMOTION OF CHILD SAFEGUARDING IN FAITH-LED ASSOCIATIONS
Between October 2020 and April 2021 training courses will be activated in 27 Italian areas
Each training will last 18 hours, divided into three modules of 6 hours each. The training course aims to promote the acquisition and sharing of expertise at three levels of Child safeguarding in the members of the three organisations:
- Safe-self: feeling free from the risk of incurring any kind of abusing dynamics to sharing, open communication, supervision;
- Safe community: keep community’s experienced focused on the care for interpersonal relationships and the environments in which these relationship develop
- Safe organization: recognize as a protection factor the sharing of associative codes of conduct, prevention as a broad and proactive structural strategy
Three training modules, three thematic focuses, one for each module.
- ABUSE, BETWEEN INJURY AND CRIME. Let’s learn to recognize abuse to prevent it.
- THE RELIABLE ADULT: A PATH TO MATURE INTIMACY.
- SHARED WORDS TO TELL SOMETHING INTIMATE. The protection of minors: welcome wounds and promote generative communication.
The training course will be scientifically supported by the report produced by the Department of Sociology of the University of Bologna with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on Victims and Safety.
The same Department will provide training for students of the Master’s Degree Course in Criminological and Investigative Sciences and for the police forces of some Italian territories, involved in the investigation of crimes related to training issues.
The Project therefore has a systemic approach, connecting the different contexts inhabited by minors – family, sport, group – in which it is necessary to implement protection in a preventive way, and in the contexts of reporting and support to victims.
COMMUNICATION: PROMOTING A CULTURE OF PROTECTION OF MINORS AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE
Safe intends to promote in the Church and in the society a culture of protection of minors and vulnerable people by creating an open and transparent communication. We believe that knowing how to deal openly with sensitive issues such as dignity, respect, relationship, responsibility, power, intimacy, sexuality, violence and abuse is a challenge that cannot be postponed.
Safe intends to promote a cultural change through information and awareness raising, starting with the media themselves.
This will be expressed and supported by spaces for in-depth analysis and dialogue through columns and monthly articles on the Stadium page of “Avvenire” and the radio programme “Sport, health and education” on Radio Maria, edited by the CSI.
Furthermore the social channels of each partner will be used for the dissemination of the initiatives and contents promoted by the Project.
